Jun 27, 2014

Five Things About Me

It is finally Friday. Just as Indiana Jones always grabs his hat at the last possible second from that falling rock / wall / door / Nazi, I'm here with my Friday Five. This week is a learning week. And this week, you can't afford to not read the list. What is so important about this list? Have I solved world hunger? Nope. Am I proving string theory in a 5 bullet point list? Not this week. Did I find Waldo? Yes, but that's not this week either. Will this list make you rich and successful? Maybe, if applied correctly. This week's topic is

Five Things About Me

See, I told you it was important. This list is all about me. You may be thinking much like Frau Blucher, And who are you, you, you, you, you. You, you, you, you, you. You?

1. I am a ginger.

I know, I'm starting off with a shocker. I am a redhead. I love being a redhead. I enjoy it. I'll make jokes about not having a soul or a shadow, burning when thinking about the sun too hard, being the redheaded step child or playing connect the dots with my freckles. On a side note, the last may or may not have happened. Alcohol also may or may not have been involved. Just saying.

2. I am a programmer by day, teacher by night.

Ok, so it's not sexy billionaire company CEO and crime fighter (I'm looking at you Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne), but it's not a bad pairing either. I work as a senior software engineer for my "day job" (though it has a tendency to spill over beyond the "day" at times). Right now, I'm the UI guy, so basically, I make it pretty. I also adjunct a computer science course ever semester in the evenings. I love programming but I also love to teach. It can be very rewarding if at the end of the final, even one student says thank you or that they enjoyed the course. In fact, I actually got several this evening after finishing up a 6 week summer class, so it was a very rewarding 6 weeks, as hard as it was.

3. I HATED running growing up.

I may love running now, but I am not one of those stories where, I ran in high school, stopped for a while then picked it back up. Nope. I very much did not like it. I did not like it, Sam-I-Am. Unless it was part of a sport, such as running the bases, I did not want anything to do with running. Heck, even as part of a sport, it was more of I would tolerate the running or notice it less when enjoying the game. I dreaded the mile run every year in gym class as part of the physical fitness test. I certainly didn't go out on a run for fun. But just before I reached 30, I found a love of running. And now past the 30 mark, my running years have begun. I feel good before, during and after. I don't dread going for a run (maybe the early morning occasionally) and I actually enjoy being out on a run. I have to attribute a ton of my success and enjoyment to Jeff Galloway and his Run Walk Run plan. Without it, I don't think I'd have the love I have right now.

4. I am a brother of Kappa Kappa Psi.

Kappa Kappa Psi is the National Honorary Band Fraternity. It centers around service to the band, leadership, brotherhood and "that music is a universal language and truly the greatest of the arts". Kappa Kappa Psi was a large part of college for me and is still a large part of me. It gave me a lot for memories, friends and experiences I'll always remember and cherrish. I was a refounding father of my chapter at Bloomsburg University. That means I helped colonize the Zeta Alpha chapter at our university and go through the process becoming a full chapter. I served as president of my chapter, vice president for the Northeast District and am a life member of the fraternity. I love music and love my brothers. The fraternity is even how I first met my wife, at a district convention when I was running for office. I have so many connections I've made and each of them special. I even recently discovered that another runner I know on twitter (I'm looking at you, Christina) is a brother. 

5. I am a geek.

I know what you're thinking, I'm starting AND ending with a shocker. But, let's be honest, if you want to know about me, that is me. I'm a geek. Not a little bit of a geek, but very much so I think. But again, I am proud to be so. Let's see, beyond the afore mentioned proclivity to programming (and therefore love of computers)... I love any gadget. I love to read. I play video games. I love Disney, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Rooster Teeth, Red vs Blue, superheros, TMNT, Harry Potter, LoTR, and the Sword of Truth (just to name a few credentials). My interests are diverse and I wouldn't have it any other way. Normal is a little boring for me.

Linking Up

Want to learn more about me? Well, I was tagged recently for a Liebster award, so that post will be coming. You'll just have to wait patiently. But while you're waiting, why not go learning about some other people? In fact, I bet on this link up, you could go jump around and read about a lot of different people.

Check here for some links out to others sharing, starting with our three lovely hosts: Courtney @ Eat Pray Run, DCCynthia @ You Signed Up for What?! and Mar @ Mar on the Run. Check their blogs. I enjoy them and you may too. I will add some others, usually randomly, as I read them to share the love. Go visit and keep reading!

Our hosts:

Mar @ Mar on the Run

Courtney @ Eat Pray Run, DC

Cynthia @ You Signed Up for What?!

Some other good reads, pulled from the link up

Kristen @ Run Away With Me

Aly @ Disney Runs in the Family

Jennifer @ Run Jenny Run

Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner

32 comments:

  1. Thanks to the programmers (I am not one, but on a project with alot of developers). I use to hate running when I was younger as well (elementary/middle school)...I would use to dread the timed mile!

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    1. It was never a fun gym class that day. That and pull ups.

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  2. We are twins, I also hated running growing up! Have a great weekend and enjoy your long run!

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    1. Have a great weekend too. I have a 5K fun run obstacle course this weekend, with ice cream at the end. It should most definitely be good.

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  3. I hated running too. I had to do track and cross country in high school due to a schedule conflict and it sucked. I think I would have liked it better if they had (or I knew about) compression shorts and Body Glide back then!

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  4. Didn't peg you as a redhead for some reason. I have some sort of image of you in my head-oh that sounded weird! I hated running growing up too until my 30"s. Happy Friday!

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    1. No, I can understand what you mean. No you've been warned of my redness. ;-)

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  5. I was born a ginger, so even though my ginger color now comes from the salon, I still consider myself to be one (I do have the requisite freckles from head to toe). Running was my favorite part of all the sports I played (quite poorly) as a kid, it just took me a while to figure that out!

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    1. You are of course still a ginger. You just got the ginger-under-cover gene, that hid your ginger hair to do recon for us.

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    2. I too am a teacher and the end of the semesters were definitely my favorite part for various reasons. One year in my middle school class I had the kids write me. Letter telling me what they learned and it was so funny to hear what really made an impact on some of the kids. Some of the things they remembered weren't really part of the lessons I taught but where a life lesson that I just happened to talk about in casual conversation with them. Enjoy your weekend!

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    3. That sounds like a cool idea to hear some of those things. I usually do a thing at the beginning where it is about me getting to know why they're taking this class (usually intro to computing) so I know what they're looking to get out of it and can teach accordingly, but that would be interesting to do at the end as well.

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  6. I like red hair! For a long time I dyed my hair red. But now I've given up on that and am going natural.

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  7. Same here on running as a kid. It's not only that I hated it, I just couldn't do it. I was the only kid in the class who couldn't run one mile for the annual fitness test. I only started running in my late 30s just a few years ago. I was a tech writer for a while and now do project mgt, but I work with software engineers and web developers.

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    1. Yeah. It was a chore to even finish it. It was not great. But running faster than ever before (note the relative use of fasterER not fast).

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  8. Great that you love to teach and feel it rewarding! It's always nice when you feel you accomplished something or at least made some sort of difference for someone else. Also love that you are a geek, I married one too! :)

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    1. Yeah. My wife's stuck with me now too. And I'm pulling her more and more into my type of geek stuff. Like the Marvel movies, or Doctor Who.

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  9. I think there are a lot of us who hated running growing up but our adult selves just finally came to our senses ;)

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  10. i had no idea about that frat -- did you know that cynthia and i both played the flute? (her MUCH better than me) :)

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    1. I knew she did from one of her blog posts recently. I was a brass player. Trumpet. Yeah, I'm one of them.

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  11. Here's to red heads! :) I'm red head - my husband is a red head - my dad is a red head - I have a red head step daughter... I'm looking for a Red-merle Aussie dog :)

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    1. The Aussie would be a perfect fit. I love them. Great dogs.

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  12. I only wish I could do computer programing, I think it would be fun to be able to be a creator in that sense!

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    1. I enjoy it. And I like that you see it as a "creator". That's often overlooked at programmers being creators and having creativity, when coding does take a real element of creativity to be good.

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  13. Awesome on the band and music thing! My "day job" is not a programmer, nor a billionaire tycoon, but in music. And I also hated running when I was younger!

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    1. Having a day job in music would be pretty cool too. It's important to do something you enjoy.

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  14. Thanks for the shoutout! I also hated running when I was growing up - it was the worst. I used to walk the mile in high school because I was so embarrassed. I'm glad we were both able to overcome that!

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    1. You're welcome. I would "run" but it was very much a slow plod at best. In reality, my run walk starting out quickly surpassed anything I did in gym class.

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  15. Thanks for sharing! I too, did not discover a love of running until a little later...I think you have to experience the joy of a good run at the end to understand and appreciate the sometimes pain of being in the middle of it.

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